PH102 CLASSICAL PHYSICS

LAB REPORT 3 – Ex 4. EXPERIMENTS ON COOLING

DIANDRA TAUAUVEA S11151996

Experiment Date: 03rd May 2024 Week 9
LAB PARTNERS: Elisapesi Koloamatangi S11206354
Sione Tongotea S11198690
Aiden Caine S11223523

1
TITLE: EXPERIMENTS ON COOLING

AIM
To verify Newton’s law of cooling and determine the specific heat capacity of oil.

APPARATUS
2 Calorimeters with lid and stirrer, 2 thermometers, 2 stopwatches, oil, 2 Electric hot

plates, 2 x 500 ml glass beakers

METHOD
As per lab manual (University of the South Pacific, 2024).

INTRODUCTION
Given the temperature between a body and the it’s surrounding is small, the rate of cooling is
directly proportional to the excess temperature and the exposed surface area (Davidzon, 2012)
– this is Newton’s law of cooling and can be mathematically expressed by Equation 1.
dQ dT
=−mc [Eq 1]
dt dt

Where the negative sign depicts a loss of heat, m is the mass and c is the specific heat capacity.
In this experiment, we will verify Newton’s law of cooling by showing that Equation 2 holds.
−dT
=k (T −T R ) [Eq 2]
dt
Where k is the constant of proportionality, (T −T R ) is the excess temperature and T R is the
room temperature.
Furthermore, if the rate of heat loss primarily depends on surface area that expels the heat and
excess temperature, the rate of loss is independent of the material, that is, the rate of heat loss
will be the same for two different bodies (O'Sullivan, 1990). This relationship can be used to
determine the specific heat capacities – and Part B of the experiment will determine the specific
heat capacity for oil using the relationship in Equation 3.

( ) dT
( )dT
( mw c w +mc c c ) dt = ( mo c o+ mc c c ) dt
w o
[Eq 3]

mw −mass of water , c w −specific heat capacity of water

mo−mass of oil , c o−specific heat capacity of oil

2
mc −mass of calorimeter , c c −specific heat capacity of calorimeter (copper )

RESULTS
PART A – VERIFICATION OF THE NEWTON’S LAW OF COOLING
Room temperature ( T R ) =32± 0.5 oC

Time Temperature ± 0.5 oC

(mins)
0 80
1 78
2 77
3 76
4 74
5 73
6 72
7 71 Table 1: Recorded temperature for water cooling at
8 70 every minute where initial temperature at
9 69 t=0 mins ,T =80 oC
10 68
11 67
Mass of calorimeter+ water =258 ±0.05 g
12 66
13 65 Mass of calorimeter mc =166.5 ± 0.05 g
14 65
15 64 Mass of water mw =91.5± 0.1 g
16 63
17 63
18 62
19 61
20 60
21 60
22 59
23 58
24 58
25 57
26 57
27 56
28 56
29 55
30 55
31 54
32 54

3
4
Figure 1: Temperature-vs-time plot for water cooling, where tangents are drawn at points T =75o C , 70o C ,65 o C ,60 o C ,55 o C and equations in
the form y=mx+c are displayed for each tangent.

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 Temperature ( ± 0.5o C ) T −T R ( ± 1o C )
dT
( oC /min )
dt
75 43 -1.8
70 38 -1
65 33 -0.64
60 28 -0.465
55 23 -0.5
Table 2: The gradients of the tangents in Figure 1 recorded in the column dT/dt and the
corresponding excess temperatures.

dT/dt-vs-Excess temperature for water

0
20 25 30 35 40 45
-0.2
f(x) = − 0.0627 x + 1.1881
-0.4 R² = 0.79579480494243

-0.6

-0.8
dT/dt

-1

-1.2

-1.4

-1.6

-1.8

-2

Excee temperature

Figure 3: The gradients (dT/dt) plotted against excess temperature (T −T R ) to determine the
Newton’s cooling constant for water (k). Where k is the gradient of the trendline (k =−0.0627).

PART B: SPECIFIC HEAT OF LIQUID BY THE METHOD OF COOLING

Time Temperature ± 0.5 oC
Mass of calorimeter+ oil=245.1± 0.05 g
6
Mass of calorimeter mc =164.3 ± 0.05 g

Mass of oil mo=80.8 ±0.1 g

 (mins)
0 80
1 77
2 75
3 73
4 72
5 70
6 68
7 66
8 64
9 62
10 60
11 60
12 60
13 59
14 59
15 58
16 57
17 56
18 56
19 55
20 54
21 53
22 53
23 52
24 52
25 51
26 51
27 50
Table 3: Recorded temperature for water cooling at every minute where initial temperature at
t=0 mins ,T =80 oC

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Figure 4: Temperature-vs-time plot for oil cooling, where tangents are drawn at points T =75o C , 70o C ,65 o C ,60 o C ,55 o C and equations in the
form y=mx+c are displayed for each tangent

8
 Temperature ( ± 0.5o C ) T −T R ( ± 1o C ) dT
( oC /min )
dt
75 43 -2
70 38 -2
65 33 -2
60 28 -0.833
55 23 -1
Table 4: The gradients of the tangents in Figure 4 recorded in the column dT/dt and the
corresponding excess temperatures.
ANALYSIS
Part 1 – Verification of the Newton’s Law of Cooling
By integrating Equation 2 we can derive a numerical expression for the temperature of the
body with respect to time:
−dT
=k (T −T R )
dt
Substituting T for (T −T R ) since it’s both temperatures.
−dT
=kT
dt
dT
∫ T
=∫ −k . dt

ln |T |=−kt+ C

|T |=e−kt +C
|T |=e0.0627 t +C

Part 2 – Specific Heat Capacity of a liquid by the Method of

Cooling
Using Equation 3:

( )
dT
w
dT
( mw c w +mc c c ) dt = ( mo c o+ mc c c ) dt ( ) o

For T =70 ± 0.5o C :

[ ( 0.0915 )( 4181 )+ ( 0.1665 ) ( 390 ) ] . [ −1 ] =[ (−0.0808 ) co + ( 0.1643 ) (390 ) ] . [−2]

[ 382.5615+64.935 ] . [−1 ]= [−0.0808 c o +64.077 ] .[−2]
J
c o =1976.13
kg . K

Error Analysis:
¿ 1976.13 ± 0.12%
J
c o =(1976.13 ± 2.4)
kg . K

For T =60 ± 0.5o C :

[ ( 0.0915 )( 4181 )+ ( 0.1665 ) ( 390 ) ] . [ −0.465 ]= [ (−0.0808 ) c o + ( 0.1643 ) ( 390 ) ] .[−0.833]

 [ 382.5615+64.935 ] . [−0.465 ] =[−0.0808 c o +64.077 ] . [−0.833 ]
J
c o =2298.87
kg . K
Error Analysis:
¿ 2298.87 ± 0.5 %
J
c o =(2298.87 ± 11.5)
kg . K

Average of the two c o values above with error analysis:

1976.13+2298.87 J
co= =2137.5 ±0.3 %=2137.5± 7.0
2 kg . K
DISCUSSION
In Part A, the experiment results determine the Newton’s cooling constant for water was
k =−0.062, where the negative signifies cooling, that is the temperature of water drops
0.062 C per unit of time. The accepted range of k-values for water is k =−0.0 5 ¿−0.1,
o

where the experimental value falls within the accepted range, thus the Newton’s law of
cooling is verified.
Newton’s cooling law can be further applied to determine specific heat capacities for liquids
of interest. By employing the same methods, the specific heat capacity of oil was calculated
J
to be c o =2137.5 ±7.0 . The accepted value for the specific heat for a typical oil is
kg . K
J
c o =2000 , although the experimental value is higher than the accepted value, it is still
kg . K
within an acceptable limit, noting that the experiment is marred with both systematic and
random errors that contribute the difference. It is also crucial to remember that the
accepted value is that of a ‘typical’ oil, the chemical composition and ingredients present in
each oil type can also have a possible effect on the final specific heat capacity of the oil. A
fine tuning of handling the equipment and taking the readings can further increase the
accuracy of the final experimental values.

CONCLUSION
According to Newton’s law of cooling the rate of cooling is proportional to the excess temperature
where the cooling constant k has an experimental value of k =−0.062 verifying the Newton’s law
of cooling. It can be further applied to determine the specific heat capacity for certain liquids
J
such as oil where the calculated value is c o =2137.5 ±7.0 which is within an accepted
kg . K
limit from the accepted value.
References
Davidzon, M. (2012). Newton's law of cooling and its interpretation. International Journal of Heat
and Mass Transfer, 21 - 26.

O'Sullivan, C. (1990). Newton's law of cooling - a critical assessment. American Journal of Physics, 956
- 960.

University of the South Pacific. (2024, April 19). University of the South Pacific. Retrieved from PH102
Lab Manual : https://elearn.usp.ac.fj/mod/folder/view.php?id=326955